Vie Fitness & Spa owner Heather Dupuis is bringing her fitness studio to the southeast side of Ann Arbor after operating a downtown location for 10 years.

Dupuis plans to open her second Vie location in the new Arbor Hills shopping center on Washtenaw Avenue between Huron Parkway and Platt Road.

“This will be like having a little slice of Vie on the other side of town,” Dupuis said. “Our idea is that I think there’s a lot of clients or people in our demographic that don’t want to downtown park.”

Dupuis opened Vie — which offers personal training, group fitness classes, massages, nail care, facials, body waxing, a juice bar and a retail boutique area — at 209 S. Ashley St. in 2004, in a second-floor space above the former Firefly Club. After doubling in size when Vie took over the first floor in 2008, the studio has grown its class offerings and number of clients, Depuis said

When she saw the tenants that planned to open in the Arbor Hills shopping center, Dupuis saw opportunity to expand the Vie brand.

Different pilates machines are lined up on the second floor of the downtown Vie Fitness & Spa location.Patrick Record | The Ann Arbor News

“We always thought we were all about downtown, and I never thought I would open anywhere else in Ann Arbor,” Dupuis explained. “But (Arbor Hills) just seemed so perfect in terms of demographics, stores, the neighborhood, and it’s far enough from Vie (downtown).”

Developed by Tom Stegeman and Max Reiswerg, Arbor Hills is an outdoor boutique shopping center that opened to shoppers in August. The center has 18 tenants, from retail chains such as lululemon to local tenants such as Running Fit.

Dupuis plans to open the second Vie Fitness & Spa location in January in a second-floor space at Arbor Hills, in the building with Anthropologie, The North Face and Sur La Table.

“We’re a destination, we’re not a walk-in and come check us out place,” Dupuis said. “We’re in a fun location, but you have exclusivity, a hidden haven.”

At 3,000 square feet, the new Vie location will be half the size of the downtown location. Dupuis said there is room to expand at Arbor Hills in the future.

The center, which is priced a la carte and doesn’t have a monthly membership fee, will offer pilates, dance classes for adults, Vipr classes, stretching, yoga, barre, boxer fit, massage and functional personal training. A big focus will be on pilates training, since Vie is now a New York Authentic Pilates studio.

“It’s really popular,” Dupuis said about pilates training. “People are really responding well. It’s a mixture of new clients coming in and also people that personal train are finding it’s a nice balance with what they’ve been doing.”

The new Vie location won’t offer spinning or have a juice bar. It will have a smaller retail area, and will have a “spa on wheels,” where every month there will be nail care or facials offered so people can experience a slice of Vie’s downtown spa.

“Then, they can come downtown and get the real thing if they like it. … It’s a piece of Vie. I think this will help Vie (downtown) because it will create more awareness,” she said.

The pricing structure will be the same at both gyms and clients can use both locations.

Dupuis said core employees from Vie downtown will be going to the new Vie location either full or part time. Slowly, she’ll start building the team at the new fitness center.

“We’re going to try and disrupt downtown as little as possible,” she said.

Lizzy Alfs is a business reporter for The Ann Arbor News. Reach her at 734-623-2584, email her lizzyalfs@mlive.com or follow her on Twitter.